Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, said:

At this rate, the president’s first term in office may be over by the time federal agencies do what he asked them to do on his first day in office. Freedom of information laws exist to help all of us get the information we need for this open society to function. Yet government at all levels seems to have a great deal of trouble obeying its own transparency laws.